Deepwater Alchemy: Multispecies Intimacies at the Blue Frontier



Abstract

We often take for granted the sensing and imaging processes that have made human activities such as offshore drilling, deep sea mining, and archaeological excavation at the ocean bottom possible today. Yet media technologies such as sonar-based surveys, underwater cameras, digital modeling, and more have played a key role in both representing the seafloor as a space of potential profits, even when they are also used for environmentalist aims. Deepwater Alchemy: Extractive Mediation and the Taming of the Seafloor makes the case that the historical development of underwater media technologies has been complicit in perpetuating logics of extraction, exploitation, and militarism in our global oceans. From towed hydrophones to networked ocean observation, the hunt for resources has driven the imaging of the ocean floor and vice versa, imperiling fragile deep ocean ecosystems in the process.


Building on the book’s exploration of techniques such as petroleum seismology and animal-borne sensing, this talk will delve deeper into the role of whales and other marine animals in media assemblages as both victims and collaborators in global ocean mediation. What are the stakes of bringing images of oil and other ocean resources to life through processes that simultaneously produce death? How might a multispecies perspective on ocean mediation dismantle existing hierarchies of knowledge and sense? Han’s book critiques the epistemological and ideological biases inherent in the pursuit of global ocean media coverage and human presence in the deep sea, contending that such values are borrowed from terrestrial knowledge regimes, colonial notions of the frontier, and anthropocentric perspectives on environment. As the seafloor becomes increasingly accessible to humans, it becomes all the more important to attune our senses to those of others creatures, from the tiniest zooplankton to our oceanic giants. 


Speaker's Short Biography

Lisa Yin Han is an Assistant Professor of Media Studies at Pitzer College, in the Claremont Colleges Intercollegiate Media Studies Field Group. Situated at the intersections of environmental media studies, critical ocean studies, and science and technology studies, Lisa’s work is informed by a dedication to social and environmental justice. Her book, Deepwater Alchemy: Extractive Mediation and the Taming of the Seafloor (University of Minnesota Press, 2024), examines how media operations in deep ocean environments pave the way for extractive industries. Lisa also works as a reviews co-editor for the Journal of Environmental Media and is an affiliate of the Humanities for Environment North American and Asia-Pacific Observatories.


Learn more

https://lisayinhan.com/